Virtual Team Forum

[Ken Leung]

Originally posted by JVN

As long as Deano is herding HS FIRSTers onto college teams like cattle, he might as well reward the ones who do it right.

John

Don't want to post too much in here about this, because this topic deserve a thread of its own (*wink* Brandon ).

Now that my new life long goal is to beat Dean someday (by inventing something better than the Segway, or FIRST, either one)... I suppose I don't have to agree with Dean all the time .

My problem is what Matt said. When we encourage the freshman college students to start their team in college right away, or be involved with an existing team, there are often the risk that there are too much stress between the changing of life style, school, and FIRST all together. There are some who can handle the stress... There are others who can't. Those who can't will become totally frustrated with FIRST, and eventually choose to ignor it like a bad year they don't want to remember. We have seen quite a bit of examples already. Not all the FIRST college students are still around anymore.

I think it is unfair if Dean/FIRST is shifting the responsibilities of getting more teams onto College Students' shoulder (I am not saying they are, I am just saying if they are doing it). I think it is unfair to ask someone who've been inspired by the program to do something better with their lives to come right back in and take on the job of inspiring more high school students, thinking it's the only thing they can do after they go to college. I think it is unfair that the inspiration for science and technology turns into inspiration for new college teams.

Doing FIRST during college year isn't a bad thing, as long as it's out of free will. As long as the college students are given all the options in front of them, knowing they can choose whatever they want, understanding the amount of stress and work it takes, and having some support to help them through it, then I have no problem with it. There will always be the Super College Students (SCS) who can do anything in the world twice in the time others can only do once... Those are the success among college FIRST participants... But they do not represent every college student out there. Those who aren't SCS might not get the reward they deserve by burning themselves out in a team freshman year.

To me, that's a reverse of what FIRST do to high school students.

If FIRST really wants to create college level participation and wants lots of it, they should work hard at creating a program designed for college students. Something that will fit into a full time student's schedule, something that will earn him/her credit during the school year, something that will recognize the amount of work they put into and how much the got from their participantions. Think along the line of co-op programs... The students will never be asked to work full time AND take the classes of a full time student. Instead, they are given credit for the job, or get paid by the company, and their school recognizes what they are getting out of the program. Now that's real support.